Thanks everyone for the comments and feedback. I really worked hard this year to bring the haunt to another level and seeing these photos is proof that it was all worth it. The big skull stage went over extremely well but it could use some more detailing and better lighting for next year. I ran out of time to make the platform good enough to jump out of so that will be on the agenda as well. To think that just two years ago the haunt was in the front yard of my house is pretty funny. I feel like I'm finally over the hump of building massive structures for a while. I am happy with the area the haunt takes up now, about two acres I would guess. This year I can replace the aging big monsters with new different ones and flesh out the whole haunt with more detail, smaller props and well designed scares.

Here are a few more photos. As you can see, lighting plays a big part in the final look of each prop. Dan and Sue deserve a ton of credit to be able to capture these scenes with low light and tons of people coming through the haunt.

We just love and admire your work! The pictures are amazing -- thanks so much for sharing! You always inspire us to take our corn maze haunt in a new direction and to think BIG!!

"Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and you will accomplish your object. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm."
~Ralph Waldo Emerson~

Thanks again guys. I'm busting at the seams with photos so here are a few more with answers to your questions.

The ghost's arms came from this monster I used in my home haunt. After using this pumpkin guy for 3 years it was time for a change. I just stripped the corn stalks off and painted the hands white and continued to use the old arms and hands. The arms are made of pink foam insulation with electrical conduit running through them for strength. Rope runs through the middle to hold them together. The foam is glued together with Liquid Nails. The details are too much to go into here but the ghost is covered with painters plastic and cheese cloth. Check out how it looks when the wind is blowing!

We kept the candles lit by placing them in small glass jars on windy nights. It takes a few people over an hour to light them all.

2005 pumpkin monster at the home haunt. Arms were used for the new ghost in 2006.

Our haunt is open for two weeks during the day for people to tour with kids or that don't want to be scared at night. The only thing with that is, I have to make every thing look good during the day also so it's more work hiding wires and detailing things you wouldn't notice at night. Here are a few day shots of this year.

Entrance to the pine bough tunnel. Scary as hell at night. It took one huge pine tree to get enough boughs to make the tunnel. It smelled awesome as well and people loved it.

Some people didn't even want to go in the tent during the day.

This tree monster was a bitch to carve because of the height. The kicker was I ran out of time to light the thing so not many people saw the detail but it still looked cool in low light.

It's crazy how the place transforms at night with all the lighting on. It takes forever and tons of heavy duty cords to light the whole place up and I run out of stuff every year.

This is an old monster that needs replacing. I was able to get one more year out of him by making this wall in front and using different colored lights than every other year.

I made a bunch of these tiki torch heads this year. I thought they would look really cool once they were lighted. The problem was the flame cast such a shadow on the head you could hardly see them. I can fix that next year with more lighting in front of them. For now I can use the photos for posters and other promo material.

Tiki head colorized for promo.

This one is my favorite. Dan captured all the detail in this extream close up.